‘Are You Going to Bring That Guy Back from El Salvador?’: Public Backlash Over Trump’s Chaotic Policies and Attacks On Due Process Intensify

"Hands off Social Security and Medicare." "No kings in America." "Supreme Court says to bring him back." It's clear that Americans are getting fed up with 100 days of chaos and lawlessness.

Nearly 100 days into Donald Trump’s second administration, public backlash over his chaotic and unpopular policies and massive overreach are only intensifying. At Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s town hall earlier this month, some of the most impassioned pleas and anger from attendees concerned the Trump administration’s attacks on due process and rule of law, its abduction of Maryland dad Kilmar Abrego García, and continued defiance of a Supreme Court ruling ordering U.S. officials to “facilitate” the long-settled contributor’s return home.” The New York Times reports:

Mr. Grassley had been responding to another questioner’s criticisms of the Trump administration’s stance toward refugees when a man behind her shouted: “Are you going to bring that guy back from El Salvador?”

The question was met with enthusiastic claps from many in the crowd of about 100.

“I’m not going to,” Mr. Grassley said. Pressed to explain his stance, he added, “Because that’s not a power of Congress.”

However, attendees refused to take that as an acceptable response. “Supreme Court says to bring him back,” a constituent yelled. “He’s defying the Constitution,” multiple voices said. “If I get a court order to pay $1,200, can I just say no, does that stand up?” a man yelled. “Because he’s just got an order from the Supreme Court, and he’s just said no screw it!” Multiple voices continued to respond in agreement. “Yeah, I’m pissed!” Watch the exchange below:

Impassioned pleas also came from a member of the faith community. “I believe very strongly in my Christian faith. I preach on Sundays, and I believe very strongly that we welcome the stranger,” one woman said to applause. “That is what we’ve been taught, and that is what the Gospel tells us. And I think turning away people who have come here for asylum is one of the most shameful things we are doing right now,” she continued to further applause.

“I just want to know, for you as a senator, as my elected senator, is there anything you can do so that we can follow international law better?” she asked Grassley. “Our, just the ideals of our country to be a place of hope for others, where they can come when they are searching for a home because they have no place else to go.”

But when Grassley responded that the U.S. should follow the law, audience members shot back that our nation is not. “There’s no due process,” one responded.

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Due process weighed heavily on the minds of attendees. “Senator Grassley, on that same subject, the Constitution, the framers of the Constitution said that every person – not citizen – every person within the jurisdiction of the United States has due process,” an attendee said to cheers. One report found that as many as 90% of the men rushed off to a Salvadoran mega-prison under a secretive agreement worth as much as $15 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars have no criminal record at all. Watch the town hall moment below:

There’s also intense public response to plans from the Trump administration and its allies to hurt working and low-income American families by disrupting essential healthcare coverage in order to help pay for tax cuts for billionaires and economy-busting mass deportations. In California’s Bakersfield –  where 67% of residents rely on Medicaid – community members have expressed outrage and worry over plans proposing more than $880 billion in devastating cuts from the life-saving program. 

Natalie Padilla, a pharmacy tech in the area, told Cal Matters that she has family members “who rely on Medicaid have low-paying or part time jobs that don’t offer health insurance. Any reductions in coverage would be ‘devastating,’ she said.”

Local residents worried over cuts packed the Dignity Health Arena, Theater and Convention Center on April 15 (which was also Tax Day), as part of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which packed in more than 4,000 people in Bakersfield alone, KGET reported. “I’m close to getting Social Security,” said rally attendee David Milbrodt. “I want to keep it. I’ve paid into it, and I want to keep it.” Just a few days later, more than 100 protested at the California State University, Bakersfield. “Many demonstrated with chants and descriptive posters voicing their frustration towards the Trump Administration’s plan for healthcare in California,” Bakersfield Now reported.

The Fresno Bee reported that following the April 15 event, Bakersfield Rep. David Valadao signed a letter stating that he would “not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.” However, Valadao already provided a critical vote “requiring the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to cut at least $880 billion through 2034,” the Center for American Progress said. “Because Medicaid accounts for approximately 93 percent of non-Medicare funding that the committee oversees, the program is expected to absorb the overwhelming share of these reduction.” In Florida this week, town hall attendees jeered Rep. Byron Donalds over devastating cuts from billionaire Elon Musk’s “DOGE” outfit:

The pushback from constituents last month was so fierce that some lawmakers discussed putting the brakes on in-person events, NBC News reported. In Oklahoma, Rep. Stephanie Bice tried one of Trump’s trademark diversions when faced with tough questioning: blame immigrants. It didn’t work. When a registered Republican voter brought up concerns about letting Musk’s unqualified “DOGE” tech bros come in to slash benefits for veterans like himself, Bice pivoted to falsehoods about freebies for undocumented immigrants. The veteran quickly called out her claim as a “red herring, a false flag.”

Dozens of protests also continued during the weekend, with CNN reporting more than 80 demonstrations “at state capitols, courthouses and city halls in several states as part of the ‘50501’ demonstrations – short for 50 protests, 50 states, one movement – condemning what they describe as Trump’s executive overreach, including deportations without due process, the dismantling of federal agencies and threats to higher education.” Said Sarah Parker, a 50501 coordinator: “The administration’s continued targeting of marginalized communities, the criminalization of dissent, and the erosion of civil liberties demand a response — and this is ours.”